Tablet Sales To Reach 20 Million This Year Predicts Gartner

Research firm Gartner has predicted that global media tablet sales will reach 19.5 million in 2010, partially fuelled by the rising popularity of Apple's iPad.

Gartner also said that tablet sales will rise to 54.8 million units in 2011, suggesting a 181 per cent increase.

The market will further expand due to the global availability and popularity of tablet devices, selling more than 204 million units in 2014.

Carolina Milanesi, the vice president of research at Gartner, said in a press release: “The all-in-one nature of media tablets will result in the cannibalisation of other consumer electronics devices such as e-readers, gaming devices and media players.”

According to Gartner, mini notebooks will suffer the most from the rise in the sales of tablet devices.

In 2010, North America will account for 61 per cent of the global media tablet sales. However, by 2014, as the worldwide availability of tablet devices rises, N.A will account for 43 per cent of the sales.